Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking

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The Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way.

It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the "improbable" to think like creators. Through a unique method called "Art Thinking," developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.

 

Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette

A few words from
Guillaume Houzé
Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group

“The Improbable Chair is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way. It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the ‘improbable’ to think like creators. Through a unique method called ‘Art Thinking’, developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.”

Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group Photo Credit: ©Lucasziwel

Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director

A few words from
Sylvain Bureau
Professor at ESCP Business School
Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair

“Our initial belief was simple: to make creation accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, we developed a method called Art Thinking, which characterises how artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists go through similar steps in the creative process, such as gift-giving, deviating, destroying and drifting. For 15 years, our Art-Thinking seminars have trained thousands of students, entrepreneurs, managers, and researchers across a dozen countries and twenty universities and schools. Partnering with Galeries Lafayette group, a company with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, our chair combines theory and practice to amplify this approach and promote creators and creation in the broadest sense.”

Professor Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair

Objectives

The Chair has two major complementary goals:

  • Support scientific research to better understand creative practices
  • Teach the Art Thinking method and spread the Improbable pedagogy worldwide

Art Thinking not only helps participants unleash their innate creative potential; it also promotes collaboration, listening, leadership, negotiation, and constructive dialogue. Participants learn to question themselves, leverage failure, establish partnerships, and develop an agile approach to uncertainty.

Three areas of activity

Research and development

  • Scientific publications
  • Doctoral theses and final dissertations
  • Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
Teaching

  • Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
  • Designing initial training in Art Thinking
  • Training Art Thinking instructors
Events

  • Conferences and workshops on Art Thinking
  • Exhibitions and Improbable openings
  • Improbable residencies (art­ist/sci­en­tist/­en­tre­pre­neur triads)

“This Chair is the story of an encounter between visionary creators who understood early on how future generations of students and entrepreneurs would need artistic and creative practices to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Through this collaboration, ESCP is grateful to the Galeries Lafayette group for opening up new playgrounds for unprecedented and improbable creations!”

Pascale Pernet, Director of chairs and corporate sponsorship
ppernet@escp.eu

Focus on...

Group photo at the inauguration of the Improbable chair

Article

When Art meets Entrepreneurship

On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, Léon Laulusa, Dean and Executive President of ESCP, Jean-Stéphane Arcis, President of the ESCP Foundation, Philippe Houzé, Chairman of the Management Board of the Galeries Lafayette group, and Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group, signed the first Chair dedicated to artistic and entrepreneurial creation.

Display :
13042 publications

Conference Proceedings

2016

CIRAVEGNA, L., C. FELZENSZTEIN, H. VANNINEN, F. RATTALINO

The Internationalization of Micromultinationals - Comparative Perspectives From a Developed and an Emerging Economy

in 2016 Annual Meeting, Academy of International Business (AIB), 2016, New Orleans, United States

Guest Speaker in a Conference

2016

TAFUR, J.

The Keys to Quality: Continuous Learning to create Quality Culture

2016, BID Group One, Madrid, Spain

Journal Article

2016

EVANS, A., J., P. , D. ALIGICA

The Microfoundations of Austrian Economics through a New Classical Theoretical Lens

REVIEW OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 2016

Journal Article

2016

CARBONE, V., V. MOATTI

The missing links in offshoring and backshoring research: learning through the 6 foundational premises of the theory of the supply chain

SUPPLY CHAIN FORUM: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, 2016, vol. 17, 4, pp. 183 - 189

Journal Article

2016

LAPOULE, P., E. COLLA

The multi-channel impact on the sales forces management

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT, 2016, vol. 44, 3, pp. 248-265

Published Case Study

2016

BONNETON, D., M. MURATBEKOVA-TOURON, F. PINOT DE VILLECHENON

The paradox of development. The challenges of a French subsidiary vis-à-vis its Latin-American corporate headquarters

2016, Emerald - Emerging Markets Case Studies Collection

Journal Article

2016

PILLET, G.

The reform of French Contract Law and of the general rules on obligations: the Civil Code faces the challenges of the market

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS LAW JOURNAL, 2016, vol. n° 3, Juin 2016, pp. 235-253

Journal Article

2016

DAMAY, C., N. GUICHARD, J. BREE, O. BADOT, J. -F. LEMOINE, M. POULAIN

The Representation of Shopping in Children's Books

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RETAIL AND DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT, 2016, vol. Vol. 44, Issue 10, pp. pp. 976-995

Paper presented in a Conference

2016

FABBRI, J., A. GLASER

The role of liminal spaces for employees’ self-control: the case of office restrooms

in EGOS, 2016, Naples, Italy

Journal Article

2016

BICK, M., T. THORDSEN, M. MURAWSKI

The Role of Non-social Benefits Related to Convenience: Towards an Enhanced Model of User’s Self-disclosure in Social Networks

LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE, 2016, vol. 9844, pp. 389-400